Given claims that the "endless amounts of money" that United's next owner is likely to possess will surely have his former club shopping at the top end of the transfer market if and when the takeover is complete, and suggests that Manchester City's acquisition of Real Madrid's Robinho in 2008 is evidence that hefty investment can change the perception of a club.

"If the investors come in and have got endless amounts of money, they could sign [Alexis] Sanchez, for example. It depends who these new owners are," he said.

"I’m not saying he’ll go there and they could instead trawl down the bottom part of the league – you just don’t know how much money they’ll have.

"When you look at Sheikh Mansour when he came to Manchester City and signed Robinho. Will these people have that money to spend or will it be a bit more of shopping down the ladder?"

But Newcastle fans aren't buying the suggestion that Sanchez - who was denied a move to Man City in August - would be attainable.

Obviously Newcastle won't be signing Sanchez, but you can see Given's point.

Newcastle are a bigger club than Manchester City were when Sheikh Mansour completed his takeover in 2008 and the Tyneside outfit would attract high-profile names eventually, but it would take years, and a track record of them competing for titles, to attract somebody in the Sanchez bracket.

Shane Callaghan

Shane is a Dublin-based sports writer who swapped the football pitch for the press box upon learning that he was better with a pen than with a round bit of leather. Prior to joining HITC, Shane enjoyed spells with Sports Mole and Goal.com among others, while he was also club reporter for Irish football club Drogheda United.